The assisted dying bill – formally known as the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill – was last week (June 20) voted through the House of Commons in its final reading with 314 MPs voting in favour and 291 against – a majority of just 23.
The bill will now pass to the House of Lords and go through the same stages it was subject to in the Commons.
Read more: Assisted dying amendment sets out ‘no obligation’ for pharmacists
It comes after pharmacist and Labour MP for North Somerset Sadik Al-Hassan backed a new amendment on the “regulation of approved substances and devices for self-administration” during the bill’s penultimate Commons reading earlier this month (June 13).
“As someone who has been involved in every facet of pharmacy for the past 20 years, I believe that the clause meets all our expectations,” he said.
Read more: Assisted dying: Pharmacists’ voices are ‘missing’ from dialogue
“By strengthening safeguards and enhancing the workability of the bill, new clause 13 ensures that healthcare professionals can act with clarity and confidence,” he added.
The amendment was passed and added to the bill, as was another amendment that makes pharmacy workers exempt from “any duty to participate” in the assisted dying process.
“No budget for this”
Health secretary Wes Streeting yesterday (June 22) took to Facebook to share why he voted against the “sensitive and important” assisted dying bill despite his “enormous respect” for those who seek the “right to die at a time and manner of their choosing”.
“I can’t get past the concerns expressed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians, the Association for Palliative Medicine and a wide range of charities representing under-privileged groups in our society about the risks that come with this bill,” he said.
And he added that “there isn’t a budget for this”, stressing that politics is about “choices and trade-offs” and he “[fears] we’ve made the wrong one”.
“Even with the savings that might come from assisted dying if people take up the service - and it feels uncomfortable talking about savings in this context to be honest - setting up this service will also take time and money that is in short supply,” he said.
“Fix our NHS first”
Speaking in Friday’s five-hour debate, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott said that “this may be the most fateful bill that we discuss this parliament”, adding that “it is literally a matter of life or death”.
Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock stressed that “should it be the will of parliament for this legislation to pass, then the government will ensure the safe and effective implementation of [the] service”.
Read more: Assisted dying: MPs admit not ‘enough’ discussion of pharmacists
And Conservative MP for Braintree Sir James Cleverly acknowledged that it was an “important debate” that stimulated “important conversation”.
“But I do not believe this bill is ready” to go to the House of Lords, he argued, stressing that he does “not believe” the government has had the opportunity to get the bill “into the right shape”.
Labour MP for Lewisham North Vicky Foxcroft urged the government to “fix our NHS, social care and wider society first” before passing the bill.
“Pressure” on healthcare staff
Similarly, Conservative MP for Epping Forest Dr Neil Hudson argued that the legislation would “bring in a fundamental change in the doctor-patient relationship and a foundational change in what our precious NHS is and what it stands for”.
“I am concerned about the possible pressure it will place on medical practitioners,” he added.
Read more: MPs discuss state-wide pharmacy ‘assisted dying drugs’ service
But Conservative MP for Mid Leicestershire Peter Bedford stressed to the Commons that “this bill isn’t about shortening life; it is about shortening death”.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park Sarah Olney argued that “this bill, if it passes, will be challenged in the courts, it will be subjected to endless attempts to amend it in parliament...and ultimately it will lose the confidence of the public”.
